a chronicle of my milestones and missteps... my rants and raves... and everything else in between...

Last night, I went into a frenzy searching for a good movie that will ease my stress at work. In the middle of my hunt, I came across one of my old Madonna CDs, Something To Remember. It was one of my favorite compilations since it featured most of my favorite ballads. I stopped hunting, took out my old CD player, got my good pair of headphones and let the ol' gadget shuffle the tracks. Out came "Take A Bow" and a slow smile crept on my face.

The song reminded me of a lot of things, bitter and sweet. I remembered singing this to a college friend the night before she got married. I remembered hearing this on the radio while lending a shoulder to another friend who discovered that her boyfriend didn't love her anymore. If anything, the song reminds me about realization; that all things -- good and bad -- come to an end.

Nothing is meant to last forever... even something mundane like stress or something precious like free will. When the curtains fall, you have nothing left to do but say goodbye. As soon as the song ended, I did.

Take A BowMadonna

Take a bow, the night is overThis masquerade is getting olderLights are low, the curtains downThere's no one here

Say your lines but do you feel themDo you mean what you say when there's no one aroundWatching you, watching me,One lonely star

I've always been in love with youI guess you've always known it's trueYou took my love for grantedWhy, oh whyThe show is over, say goodbye

Say goodbye

Say goodbye

Make them laugh, it comes so easyWhen you get to the partWhere you're breaking my heartHide behind your smileAll the world loves a clown

Wish you well, I cannot stayYou deserve an award for the role that you playedNo more masqueradeYou're one lonely star

I've always been in love with youI guess you've always known it's trueYou took my love for grantedWhy, oh whyThe show is over, say goodbye

Say goodbye

Say goodbye

All the world is a stageAnd everyone has their partBut how was I to know which way the story'd goHow was I to know you'd break...You'd break my heart

I've always been in love with youGuess you've always knownYou took my love for grantedWhy, oh whyThe show is over, say good-bye

I am part of a indie band named Northsound Radio and I am proud to say that we are going to launch our first album, which is entitled Driving Cars & Cutting Hair.

Doesn't the album cover look cool? I'm really proud of it because I designed it. However, that's just about the only thing you'll see about my band. Nothing about what I said above is real. There's a part of me wishing that I were part of a band but all I can manage is creating that fake album cover.

I saw this fake album cover game over Facebook and decided to follow the rules. The friend, from whom I learned the game, shared that it was originally from Multiply. Regardless of its origin, I had fun with it. I even ended up creating an account with one of the sites below. The rules are a bit tedious but believe me, you will be amazed with the results. The picture above is a testament to the game's awesomeness. Ready to take a shot at it? Here are the rules:

Go to Wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Use photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together.

Post it with this text in the "caption" and tag the friends you want to join in.

I won't be tagging friends in this page but if you find game interesting enough, I dare you to do it and share your results with me. Post your blog links in the comments after you've made one of your own. I'm excited to see your own fake album covers. Cheers! :D

Most of my friends know that I'm a huge audiophile. I like music. For me, it's poetry in motion. Sometimes, I let certain songs express the way I feel. Most of those that I like have strong, solid lyrics. I don't have any bias when it comes to genres but I there are some that I would have a love/hate relationship with. One of them is country music.

I'm a little picky when it comes to country music songs. There's a handful of them in my playlist like Jesus Take The Wheel by Carrie Underwood and What Hurts The Most by Rascal Flatts. But I always admired country song lyrics: they're often personal and grounded. And Taylor Swift's latest single is no exception.

A good number of Taylor Swift's songs are autobiographical in nature, which she admitted once in an interview. The lyrics often chastised the men with whom she had really bad relationships with. However, Back To December is different. The song is a heartfelt apology; I could feel her regret, her longing all throughout. While I have yet to decide if this was really meant for the other Taylor, I am adding it to my playlist. Of all songs she has released, this will probably be my all-time favorite.

Back To DecemberTaylor Swift

I'm so glad you made time to see me.How's life, tell me how's your family?I haven't seen them in a while.You've been good, busier than ever.We small talk, work and the weather.Your guard is up and I know why.

'Cause the last time you saw meIs still burned in the back of your mindYou gave me roses and I left them there to die.

So this is me swallowing my pride,Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that nightAnd I'd go back to December all the time.It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing youWishing that I'd realized what I had when you were mine.I'd go back to December, turn around and make it alright.I go back to December all the time.

These days I haven't been sleepingStaying up playing back myself leaving,When your birthday passed and I didn't call.And I think about summer, all the beautiful timesI watched you laughing from the passenger side,Realized I loved you in the fall.And then the cold came, the dark days when fear crept into my mind.You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye.

So this is me swallowing my pride,Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night.And I'd go back to December all the time.It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing youWishing that I'd realized what I had when you were mineI'd go back to December, turn around and change my own mind.I go back to December all the time.

I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile, so good to me, so rightAnd how you held me in your arms that September night,The first time you ever saw me cry.Maybe this is wishful thinking,Probably mindless dreamingIf we loved again I swear I'd love you right.

I'd go back in time and change it but I can'tSo if the chain is on your door, I understand.

But this is me swallowing my pride,Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that nightAnd I'd go back to December...It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing youWishing that I'd realized what I had when you were mine.I go back to december, turn around and make it alright.I go back to december, turn around and change my own mind.I go back to december all the time.

I came home today with an assignment: finish a 100-page book and note the lessons gained from reading it. The book was no stranger to me. I discovered it many years ago and I'm happy to say that I'm still able to live its principles, although a bit rough around the edges -- well, at least, for the last four years or so.

I always referred to Fish as the more down-to-earth version of The 7 Habits. However, the assignment has refreshed my memory about one poem entitled "Faith" by David Whyte. It is featured on page 44 of the said book. Hope you will indulge me as I share this and maybe you will find yourself loving it like I do.

Faithby David Whyte

I want to write about faith
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night

faithful even as it fades from fullness
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness
but I have no faith myself
I refuse to give it to the smallest entry

Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith

I laughed my heart out the first time I came across that quote. I mused at how cool it was of Simon to make that comment. In a way, that inspired me to create this blog post.

I don’t normally buy planners but when I brought my Navi 2010 planner more than a year ago, I swore than one of the things I wanted to do with it was write down the movies I watched. As I took out my old planner to be replaced by a new one (still a Navi), I decided to look back on what movies I watched and I was surprised with what I saw. It’s not much but I’m proud to say that I’ve seen quite a number and I’ve got the ticket stubs stuck on my planner to prove it.

January 9 – Sherlock HolmesJanuary 14 – Sherlock Holmes(With movies I like, I normally catch them at least twice in the cinema. Hope this doesn’t surprise you as you may see similar entries below.)

March 4 – Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief(I remembered wanting to borrow the books after I watched this because I was amused despite that one musical segment. To date, I’ve read all 5 books and I felt really disappointed with the adaptation the moment I finished Book 1.)

April 17 – Date Night

April 29 – Kick Ass(I became a fan of Chloe Moretz after seeing this movie. However, this hasn’t made me brave enough to watch Let Me In when it was released in Philippine cinemas several months after.)

May 1 – Iron Man 2(I confess. I love Robert Downey Jr. since Chances Are, thus I hated it when I wasn’t able to see Due Date with Zach Galifianakis.)

June 5 – Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time(I remembered hedging to watch this because I’m not a Jake Gyllenhaal fan despite loving Brokeback Mountain. I came out enjoying it.)

June 29 – The Twilight Saga: EclipseJune 30 – The Twilight Saga: EclipseJuly 2 – The Twilight Saga: EclipseJuly 3 – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse(I’m a Twilighter so this is normal. I watched Twilight 11 times during its run in Metro Manila cinemas last 2008. Expect the same trend when Breaking Dawn Part 1 comes out late this year.)

July 6 – Toy Story 3

July 13 – Inception(Inasmuch as I would’ve loved to catch it more than once inside a cinema, my head hurt after watching this in IMAX. It must’ve been all those mind-bending SFX and sequences.)

July 17 – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

July 20 – The Last Airbender(Jackson Rathbone was my saving grace in this movie. Enough said.)

July 21 – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

July 24 – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice(Another movie I hedged watching but I thoroughly enjoyed after exciting the cinema. Not exactly a Nic Cage fan; sorry folks. The movie, however, allowed me to rediscover my love for One Republic.)

July 26 – SALT

August 19 – Vampires Suck(Any Twilighter worth his/her salt should be able to laugh at his/her own fandom once in a while. Besides, when a franchise is spoofed, it only means one thing -- you're already part of pop culture history.)

November 13 – Unstoppable(This was one of those movies that I felt had the most compelling script, acting & direction. I was emotionally compromised… err… engaged all throughout.)

November 19 – Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1November 20 – Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1(While I am also a Potterhead, I didn’t watch this one more than twice because I had some issues with it -- specifically all the Harmonian themes of the movie. I’m just glad that my first screening was with a theater-full of Ron/Hermione shippers. I plan to change this when Part 2 comes out in the middle of this year.)

December 4 – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader(This pains me. I wanted to watch it more than once because, of all the three movies in the franchise, this was the only one that made me cry a lot. And yes, it didn’t hurt to see Ben Barnes in 3D. No sir.)

December 27 – RPG Metanoia(The lone Filipino movie I watched for the year… in years, to be honest. I hardly watch Filipino films even if the MMFF is an annual event. The last MMFF movie I watched was Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo. Too bad I only caught RPG Metanoia once and in regular format. To say that it was awesome would be an understatement. RPG Metanoia gave me something to be proud of -- that Filipino filmmakers haven’t lost its touch when it comes to telling stories. It doesn’t hurt that the quality was beyond satisfactory for a first 3D Pinoy animated film.)

Hopefully, 2011 would bring more movies for me. So far, the line-up is exciting. I kicked it off last Saturday, January 8, by watching The Tourist. And yes, the ticket stub is already stuck in the new planner.

2010 went by without so much a fanfare. It was typical yet assuring; cynical yet validating; comical yet disheartening. There was so much I wanted to say about 2010... so much I wanted to blog about... but I wasn't able to. Perhaps, it was meant to stay that way. 2010 would be another unspoken year, but still unforgettable despite its utter simplicity.

When 2011 stepped in, I welcomed it with no foresight. A first in over a decade. I still did my customary birthday song hum... I still marveled at the fireworks (and morosed at the smoke)... However, a certain degree of calm settled over me. As well as fear. I know for certain that there will be changes but I can hardly see anything. I can only act, hope and pray... for a better year, a better decade... because, heaven knows, I deserve something better for myself.